I recently heard Dr. John F. MacArthur, Jr. speaking on the radio (his
sermon tape, “The Call To Repentance”). MacArthur quoted Pastor Harry A.
Ironside (1876-1951) in an attempt to support his damnable heresy of Lordship
Salvation. MacArthur states...
Let me quote from the book he
wrote
entitled Except Ye Repent. He was a champion for repentance and rightly
so. He wrote this, "The doctrine of repentance is the missing note in
many otherwise orthodox and fundamentally sound circles today." This is
not a new battle. This is an old battle. People today are preaching a
gospel that says, "Well, look, just believe, don't worry about your sin,
don't worry about your past, just believe and that will all come later."
Ironside fought that battle in 1937.
Further he said this, he spoke of, quote: "Professed preachers of grace
who like the antinomians of old decry the necessity of repentance lest
it seem to invalidate the freedom of grace and that was the core issue."
There were some who said if you call for repentance you're invalidating
the freedom of grace and grace is so gracious and so free you don't have
to do anything but just believe. Ironside recognized in his day the
dangers of an insipient easy believism.
SOURCE: Quote by Spurgeon
provided by John MacArthur;
The Call to
Repentance - Dr. John MacArthur
John MacArthur deceitfully picks and chooses
quotes by great men, twisting their words, in a malicious attempt to support
his false teachings. This has been the deceitful, lying tactic incorporated
by the entire Lordship Salvation crowd. However it shows the fatal flaw and
weakness of their perverted theology. They cannot use the Bible, so
as a secondary authority, “great men of the past” are being erected as
straw-men to bolster their false Gospel. They take excerpts carefully chosen
from archived sermons, twisted them out of context, well suited with the
error of Cain, to deceive the Church. So now we have Satan’s new Gospel
(actually the same old lie) for our modern day.
These men are motivated by the flesh, so it is not strange they will use the
sins of the flesh (lying) to exalt the flesh. Sadly, they believe that they
are spiritual! They do not fully understand true GRACE and Christ’s imputed
righteousness. How can a person truly be saved and follow the perverted
Gospel of Lordship Salvation? There are really only TWO religions in
the world: it is salvation by human works or by God's Grace alone. It is
apparent to me that Ray Comfort is trying to maintain a middle-of-the-road
position on the issue of Free Grace versus Lordship Salvation.
John MacArthur is clearly on the side of Lordship Salvation. The
Bible teaches Free Grace. Eternal life is receiving; not giving.
Pastor Ironside DIDN'T teach Lordship
Salvation, he simply taught that Biblical repentance was necessary for
salvation, which is evidenced in the following quote by Pastor Ironside...
“Repentance is the very
opposite of meritorious experience. It is the confession that one is
utterly without merit, and if he is ever saved at all it can only be
through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, 'who gave himself a ransom
for all.' Here is firm footing for the soul who realizes that all
self-effort is but sinking sand. Christ alone is the Rock of our
salvation.”
SOURCE:
Harry A. Ironside;
Except Ye Repent, pg.
36
Clearly, Ironside taught a Free Grace view of
the Gospel. Consider further the following quote by Dr. Ironside...
“The Gospel is not a call to repentance,
or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to
promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their
place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good
advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. Do not make the
mistake then of thinking that the Gospel is a call to duty or a call to
reformation, a call to better your condition, to behave yourself in a
more perfect way than you have been doing in the past …
Nor is the Gospel a demand that you give
up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits,
and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these things, and yet
never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved at all.”
SOURCE: Harry
A. Ironside, from the sermon:
What Is The Gospel?
I highly suggest that John MacArthur actually
read Dr. Ironside's books before making any more quotes, because he's really
making a fool out of himself. I'm not trying to be unkind; but MacArthur is
trying to make a case where there is NONE.
Read what Dr. Ironside said in his Gospel
tract, ANOTHER GOSPEL? ...
“When anyone comes promising salvation to
those ‘who make full surrender' of all that they have to God, and who
'pay the price of full salvation' he is preaching another gospel, for
the price was paid on Calvary's cross and the work that saves is
finished. It was Christ Jesus who made the full surrender when He
yielded His life on
Calvary that saves us, not our surrender in any
way to Him.”
SOURCE: Harry
A. Ironside, from the Gospel tract,
Another Gospel.
In your face MacArthur! Harry Ironside just
contradicted everything MacArthur teaches concerning salvation. In sharp
contrast to Harry Ironside, here are some of MacArthur's foolishly teachings
from his book, The Gospel According to Jesus (Zondervan 1988)...
“Saving faith is
'unconditional surrender, a complete resignation of self and absolute
submission'” (page 153).
“Salvation is for those who are
willing to forsake everything” (page 78).
“Saving faith is a commitment to
leave sin and follow Jesus Christ at all costs. Jesus takes no one
unwilling to come on those terms” (page 87).
“Eternal life brings immediate death
to self” (page 140).
Is this true? Absolutely not. John MacArthur is
of the Devil and his doctrines are demonic!!! There is no way possible to
reconcile the beliefs of Harry Ironside with those of John MacArthur and
only a wicked person would try. MacArthur clearly teaches that no one can be
saved unless they are willing to UNCONDITIONALLY SURRENDER and FORSAKE
EVERYTHING. This is not what the Word of God teaches. Please Read:
Dr. John R. Rice Refutes Lordship Salvation.
Now let me quote to you again the great man of
God, Dr. Ironside...
“Nor is the Gospel a demand
that you give up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break
off bad habits, and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these
things, and yet never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved
at all.”
SOURCE:
Harry A. Ironside, from the sermon:
What Is The Gospel?
Salvation is a gift, paid for by Jesus'
literal, physical, precious blood (1st Peter 1:18,19; 1st John 1:7; Hebrews
9:12; Revelation 1:5). We are saved by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS (Matthew 6:33;
Romans 10:3,4; 1st Corinthians 5:21); and not our own willingness to do
better (Isaiah 64:6; Ephesians 2:8,9; Titus 3:5; Romans 4:5,6,22). We don't
give up our sins to get saved; we give up our sins because we are saved, and
that requires time to grow in God's grace (1st Peter 2:2).
John MacArthur is a False Prophet
The
false repentance which Dr. MacArthur promotes is entwined in self-effort. John
MacArthur teaches a false gospel which corrupts "the simplicity that is
in Christ" (2nd Corinthians 11:3,4). In MacArthur's audio sermon,
The Call To Repentance, he exploits Charles Spurgeon, H.A. Ironside, and
others in an unscholarly attempt to support his erroneous position on
Lordship Salvation. As with other false prophets, MacArthur fails to
properly exegete the Scriptures, and rests heavily upon manipulating the
quotes of great men.
MacArthur wrongly accuses opponents of
Lordship Salvation (such as myself) of teaching that repentance is not
necessary for salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Repentance is absolutely necessary for salvation... "The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe
the gospel" (Mark 1:15). However, repentance unto life is not what John
MacArthur says it is...
“That's exactly what James
said. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. You are either the
friend of the world or the friend of God, not both... that's
repentance.”
SOURCE: Quote by Spurgeon provided
by John MacArthur,
The Call to
Repentance -- John MacArthur
MacArthur teaches that in order to be saved, a
person must forsake the sinful world and stop living in sin. He falsely
defines this as repentance. In sharp contrast, the KOINE Greek in which the
New Testament is written defines the word repent simply as "a change
of mind" (Greek: metanoia). Forsaking the sinful world is a fruit
(i.e., result) of genuine repentance; but all that God requires for
salvation is that a person acknowledge his or her guilty condition as a
sinner, thus renouncing the world in their heart, and trust upon the Savior
to be eternally forgiven... "To him give all the prophets witness, that
through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins"
(Acts 10:43).
However, this DOESN'T mean that a person who is
unwilling to stop drinking booze, stop gambling, or stop shacking-up with a
girlfriend, cannot be saved. To say otherwise is to pervert the simplicity
that is in Christ and to corrupt the gift of God, which is eternal life
(Romans 6:23). Salvation is receiving; not giving. God only requires that
a lost sinner acknowledge their guilt of sin (Romans 3:19), and turn by
faith to Jesus Christ to be forgiven of their sins (John 3:16).
If one's repentance is genuine, then there has
been an initial change of heart (2nd Corinthians 5:17), and hopefully it
will ultimately lead to a life of soulwinning, holiness and commitment to
God; BUT, many believers are carnal (1st Corinthians 3:1), have been choked
by the cares and pleasures of this world (Luke 8:14), have been overtaken by
faults (Galatians 6:1), have not committed their lives to God (Romans 12:1),
are more concerned about worldly things than the things of God (1st
Corinthians 7:32,33), and some even live for Satan (1st Corinthians 5:5).
Conclusion
May
I quote the words of H.A. Ironside once again...
“Repentance is the very
opposite of meritorious experience. It is the confession that one is
utterly without merit, and if he is ever saved at all it can only be
through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, 'who gave himself a ransom
for all.' Here is firm footing for the soul who realizes that all
self-effort is but sinking sand. Christ alone is the Rock of our
salvation.”
SOURCE:
Harry A. Ironside;
Except Ye Repent, pg.
36
Clearly, Ironside taught a Free Grace view of
the Gospel. H.A. Ironside correctly recognized repentance as the confession
that "one is utterly without merit" and that if one is "ever saved at all it
can only be through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ." Salvation is
without works of self-righteousness. Romans 4:5 plainly teaches that a
man's faith is COUNTED for righteousness, i.e., the righteousness of Jesus
Christ is imputed to one's heavenly record by faith.
“Repentance is the
recognition of my sinnership — the owning before God that I am as vile
as He has declared me to be in His holy Word.”
SOURCE:
Except Ye Repent, by Dr. Harry
Ironside, chapter 3
Repentance and faith are inseparable. The
Gospel of John mentions the words “believe” and “believed” 85-times, but the
word “repent”
is never mentioned even once. In genuine salvation, one who believes on
Jesus Christ has repented, and one who repents has believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. END
Lordship Salvation
The Curse of Lordship Salvation
The Hypocrisy of Lordship Salvation
The Foolish Doctrine of Lordship Salvation
Lordship Salvation Ignores Babes in Christ and the Backslidden
